Rower has deep roots in the sport

San Diego  When rowers launch from the San Diego Rowing Club’s home at the end of El Carmel Place on Mission Bay, it’s safe to say none of them can trace their rowing roots as far back as Joe Thaxton.

“I don’t know if it’s genetics or what, but his great-grandfather Joe Jessop not only rowed but helped start the Crew Classic,” said Joe’s father, Bill Thaxton, also a competitive rower. “And his aunt (Cathy Tippett, formerly Thaxton) was a four-time Olympic rower.”

Joe Thaxton’s ties to rowing reach back even further. His great-great-grandfather Joseph Edwardus Jessop, who in the early 1900s started the city’s famed watch and jewelry business J. Jessop & Sons, used to row out to ships in San Diego Bay to check on their chronometers, the precise timekeepers sailors used as a navigational tool.

Showing that same true grit, Thaxton, 18, graduated from St. Augustine High on a Friday night this month and was at Mission Bay at 5 a.m. Saturday working out with his quad team, a four-man rowing squad of high school seniors who recently won the Southwest Regional Championships at Lake Natoma in Folsom. It was just the fourth time the San Diego Rowing Club’s quad team won the event, dating to 1994.

There was no celebrating after the victory or after graduation for Thaxton.

“Gotta live like a monk for this sport,” he joked after a two-hour rowing practice with teammates Marcus Bray (Torrey Pines High), John Burke (Cathedral Catholic High) and Eric Simmons (Santana High).

“Rowing is a sport that requires constant physical conditioning. It’s not about just liking it a little bit. You really need a passion for this sport. Thing is, you have to want to give everything you have to support the rest of your boat. You know that they’re fighting as hard as they can to support you, too.”

Last weekend, the foursome competed in the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships on William H. Harsha Lake in southwestern Ohio, 25 miles east of Cincinnati. Thaxton and his teammates finished third in their heat, sixth in the semifinals and third in the petite final.

After the Youth Nationals, Thaxton is scheduled to go to New Jersey. He’s been invited to the U.S. Rowing Junior National Selection Camp on Lake Mercer in Princeton. If selected, he’ll be one of the eight rowers on the U.S. Junior 8-man team that will compete in the World Championships in the Czech Republic this summer.

“We’ll see what happens for Joe there in the 8,” said Art Sloate, who coaches junior rowers for the historic San Diego Rowing Club that was founded in 1888. “If he doesn’t make it, we’ll see about getting this team back together to go back for the trials. But if he’s selected for the 8, that breaks up the group.”

Knowing his family’s rowing history, it would be natural to think Thaxton had a tiny oar in his crib. That’s not the case, though. He tried other sports such as football, water polo and swimming. Two years ago, he turned to rowing and discovered he was a natural.